The Brussels renovation law is unrealistic, ill-considered and unfair

The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region today approved Ecolo party minister Alain Maron’s renovation law. The law introduces a renovation obligation for all owners of a home with an energy certificate classified D to G. N-VA group chair Cieltje Van Achter calls the Renovation Act unrealistic, ill-considered and unfair.

Owners of a home with an energy certificate F or G (> 275 kWh/m² year) have until 2033 to renovate their home to level E. Homes in energy class D or E (151-275 kWh/m² year) must be renovated to at least level C by 2044. If the owner does not renovate in time, an automatic fine system will come into effect. To be able to check all this, there must be an EPB certificate for every home by 2030. If an owner fails to obtain this certificate, he or she is committing an environmental offence and risks a fine of up to EUR 100,000 and imprisonment for up to two years.

Devoid of any sense of reality

“This is completely devoid of any sense of reality,” responds Cieltje Van Achter. “Minister Maron has long been boasting that Brussels imposes the most unattainable climate targets on itself. Now he is going further and demanding that Brussels owners do the unattainable for him. Those who do not renovate their homes by 2033 will receive a fine in the mail. Even an older couple who absolutely do not wish to take on the stress of a major renovation and simply want to spend their old age at home. That is unfair.”

Immediate overturn necessary

Van Achter says that the Renovation Law must be overturned immediately in the next legislature. “According to the current rules, we must renovate 250,000 homes by 2033. That is 28,000 per year, while today, we renovate about five to six thousand every year. Does anyone believe that this is attainable? Will our administration check and possibly fine 250,000 homes in 2033? What financial scope does Brussels have to help Brussels residents with this? Do we have enough contractors for this work? The minister has not even finished his own homework to offer a proper EPB certificate.”

Fair

“We must certainly renovate our poorly insulated homes and thus also reduce the energy bill for Brussels residents, but that must be done in a fair way by focusing on renovation after purchase, as Flanders does. Not by requiring all 250,000 owners to renovate by one deadline.”